Environment, as a cross-cutting issue, addresses global challenges of environmental impact related to land use, land management and land tenure, including the issues surrounding climate change and natural resource management.

Environmental and land tenure challenges include the following:

landlessness that drives poor urban and rural people to occupy and misuse fragile ecosystems;

tenure insecurity undermining investment incentives and leading to environmental mismanagement in urban as well as in rural areas;

large scale land acquisitions and investments may lead to tenure insecurity of poor and vulnerable groups and environmental damages;

encroachment in particularly vulnerable and valuable habitats;

increasing threats in coastal areas due to sea water rise and severe weather risk;

shortage of arable and liveable lands results to more disputes and conflicts;

increasing tensions between land, land tenure arrangements and land use;

increasing land fragmentation in densely populated areas;

deforestation and forest degradation leading to carbon emissions and loss of biodiversity.

Among the many threats associated with climate change, deteriorating global security may be the most frightening of all.

With India experiencing its worst drought in 140 years, Indian farmers have taken to the streets. At a protest in Madhya Pradesh this summer, police opened fire on farmers demanding debt relief and better crop prices, killing five.

Zambia remains committed to the socio-economic development planning of the country as reflected by the return to development planning in 2005. The Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) for the period 2017- 2021 is the successor to the Revised Sixth National Development Plan, 2013-2016 (R-SNDP) following its expiry in December 2016. The Plan, like the three national development plans (NDPs) that preceded it, is aimed at attaining the long-term objectives as outlined in the Vision 2030 of becoming a “prosperous middle-income country by 2030”.

On this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we celebrate the successes of indigenous peoples in Latin America in protecting their lands and communities. In particular, we recognize the strong leadership of indigenous women who have stood at the front lines of many of these achievements and celebrate the indigenous communities that have defended their lands from mega-projects.

Land is the most fundamental resource in any society because it is the basis of human survival. Land is the space upon which all human activities take place and provides continued existence of all life forms and minerals.